


Adjusting to Life

by Zenny01



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Sleep Deprivation, Steve Rogers Has PTSD, Steve Rogers Needs Sleep, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Telepathic Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 00:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16902714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zenny01/pseuds/Zenny01
Summary: Steve is having trouble in the 21st century but no one on the team knows what to do about it.





	1. Sleeping Soundly?

**Author's Note:**

> So this just kinda popped randomly into my mind and I guess we'll see where it goes. I hope you like it. Don't forget to subscribe or bookmark this for the next chapters.

Tony paced around the room anxiously. He couldn’t seem to figure it out. Instead of Steve being happy to celebrate his birthday tomorrow, he’d locked himself in his bedroom. He hadn’t really been himself all week. A few days earlier, he’d gone to bed early, completely skipping dinner which couldn’t be good considering his increased metabolism. But no one on the team could get him to talk. Natasha probably could if she were here, but she was in deep cover right now, so that was a no-go.

The door opened up startling Tony. Steve stood in the doorway, and he looked awful. Huge bags formed under his eyes and he looked as if he could drop dead from exhaustion at any minute. Over one shoulder was a punching bag and the other hand held a bottle of water. Steve politely nodded to Tony before heading down to the gym. Walking down to his lab something occurred to Tony. Steve had been heading into his room early every night, so why was he so tired.

“Jarvis, when was last time Steve slept?” Tony asked.

“Captain Rogers had not slept in six days sir.  Before that he averaged around 2.4 hours of rest a night.” 

Six days. How the hell was Steve walking around on no sleep. The serum had probably increased his endurance but still. That was a long time. Tony thought about this for a little while. He wasn’t really sure what to do. On one hand, he was no one to talk to about sleep. He himself avoided it as much as possible. But even Tony had to sleep at least five hours a night to properly function. 

“Jarvis it’s time for an intervention.”

~

Tony watched the monitor as Steve arrived at the gym and tried to open the door. It would budge. Tony silently congratulated himself. He was about to “accidentally” run into Steve in the hallway to confront him, but just as he turned to leave he saw Steve kicking through the door. That had to hurt. 

The door was made out of titanium and reinforced with steel. Judging by Steve’s slow movements and warriness to put a whole lot of pressure on his foot, it seemed that Tony was right. Tony watched as Cap hung up a punching bag and started hitting away. Every time he’d seen Steve fight, it had always been thoughtful, coordinated, and smooth. He never just started randomly throwing punches. Which is what made the video in front of his eyes a lot more disturbing. Steve wasn’t just hitting the punching bag, he was attacking it. 

Anger hid behind every blow and Steve didn’t stop, he didn’t even seem to notice the blood beginning to cake on his knuckles. When the punching bag flew across the room throwing sand all over the floor, Steve grabbed another one and did the same thing. This couldn’t be healthy. Tony walked down to the gym walking past the broken door and over the sand on the tile beneath his feet.

“Hey, Cap,” Tony said causing the super soldier to spin around in a defensive action. On seeing Tony, Steve relaxed a little. He turned back to the punching bag delivering more controlled punches for show. 

“Hi Tony,” Steve responded punching another hole into the bag. Sighing, he took the bag off the hook above and threw it near the one from earlier. He walked over to a supply closet and grabbed another. He continued to beat the bag as Tony watched.

“What are you doing down here?” Tony asked. He already knew the answer but wanted to see what Steve had to say for himself.

“Training,”

“Why?”

Steve paused raising an eyebrow. “Because you never know what’s going to happen.” Shrugging he returned to his training. 

“Ok, let me rephrase. Why are you training instead of sleeping.” Steve froze.

“I’m not tired,” Steve lied.

“Bull shit. You haven’t slept in six days so either you tell me what the hell is going on or I find other solutions.” Steve didn’t move. He looked at Tony like a child caught stealing cookies. 

“I’m fine. I don’t need much sleep. The serum…”

“Was not designed for you to skip a week of sleeping,” Tony interrupted. 

“I’m fine,” Steve said grabbing his water and pushing past Tony. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I’m going to call it a night.”

Tony knew exactly what that meant. Steve was heading back to his room to do whatever it was he did at night instead of sleeping. Tony sighed to himself. He needed to do something about that. But it wouldn’t happen today. Tony himself had only gotten about two hours of sleep last night.  _ Maybe Steve will be more open to talking tomorrow _ Tony thought to himself.


	2. Cake Flavors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wanda finds Steve awake at 3 am.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi sorry it took so long to upload this chapter. Tbh I don't have a good excuse. Also, a lot of the timeline stuff in here doesn't make sense so just bear with me on this. Thanks again.

Wanda was sitting at her desk texting with Shuri, princess of Wakanda, when she heard a bang from the floor above. She rushed to the elevator and had Friday take her up to the next floor. As the elevator doors opened, she saw the room completely emerged in darkness. Allowing her powers to flow through her, the room began to illuminate red.

“What are you doing here?” A voice asked. Wanda jumped and turned around facing Steve Rogers.

“Hi Steve. Sorry I heard a noise up here. Are you ok?” She asked.

“I’m fine Wanda. You can go back to bed,” Steve said. Looking over at Steve, Wanda noticed he was wearing civilian clothes. At 3am.

“What are you doing up?” She asked. Steve wasn’t really the kind to share. He always kept up the Captain America persona never really letting any details of his personal life get out. 

“Reading,” He replied picking up a book next to him. It was total bull shit. Steve had no idea how to lie properly. Everything in his body language screamed he was lying, and that was without having to read his mind. “What are you doing up?” He responded. “We have training tomorrow at 7. I would have thought you’d be asleep.”

“I was texting with Shuri. Time differences make it hard so I text with her whenever I can,”

“Ok well good night.” Wanda turned around and walked into the elevator. When the doors closed, Wanda told friday to keep her on this floor and keep the doors closed. Then closing her eyes, she reached out with her mind. 

She’d known something was wrong with Steve but he clearly wasn’t going to share willingly. She knew he might not like it if he knew she was snooping around his subconscious, but she was worried about him. He hadn’t been himself all week. Huge bags always hung under his eyes and his reflexes were slower than normal. Steve wasn’t the most talkative person but he always conversed a little. But this week, unless the avengers were training he was nowhere to be seen. 

Reaching out with her mind, Wanda brushed past the random thoughts about training and the team, and… whether or not the plant in the corner was too big? Sighing, she focused harder forcing herself into his deeper thoughts. Some of them were memories of the brooklyn, of the war, or coming out of the ice. Others were dreams of what could’ve happened if the Valkyrie hadn’t crashed. Suddenly, those thoughts abruptly disappeared. Confused, she didn’t hear the footsteps and opening of the elevator doors behind her. 

“Wanda, what are you doing?” He asked leaning back against the elevator doors.

“Ummm…” She didn’t really have a good answer for that so she thought quickly trying to think of something that made sense.

“Well your birthday is coming up and I was trying to read your mind to find out what your favorite cake flavor is. Damn I’m busted huh?” She lied quickly. Luckily Steve seemed to buy it.

“It’s chocolate raspberry.” Steve said with a fake smile.

“Ok thanks,” Wanda responded quickly. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Wanda,” Steve responded. She quickly rode down to her own floor and got ready for bed. She was already in her pajamas so she just quickly brushed her hair out and crawled into bed. She wondered what was going on with Steve as she drifted to sleep.

* * *

_ Ultron laughed climbing into a quinjet and flying away. Wanda and Pietro stood by a group of children they’d rescued from a market as he came back around in the aircraft shooting everyone in sight. Wanda quickly used her magic to shield everyone from the onslaught of metallic projectiles. The bullets bounced off one by one as she closed her eyes in concentration. When the rain of metal hail finally stopped she opened her eyes and noted that all the children were unharmed. Turning to check on Pietro, she watched in horror as her brother’s lifeless form crashed to the ground red splotches covering his whole body. Blood trickled out of his mouth as she telepathically tried to reach him wanting to see what she could do to stop her brother from dying. “You didn’t save me,” Pietro said in his mind. Then the connection broke as his heart stopped beating. Wanda screamed in agony her power going unchecked and soon enough everyone who was on the floating city was incinerated in a red ash leaving her as the sole survivor. And it was all her fault. _

_ ~ _

Wanda shot up in bed gasping for air. A fresh stream of tears flowed down her face. She wiped them away and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on herself. Every once in a while, she would get a variation of that dream. Pietro dying in front of her as she watched. Looking over at the clock, Wanda saw it was only 4am she’d only been asleep for an hour. Sighing she walked out onto her balcony. Looking out at the view she used her powers to just mess around a little. Red tendrils of magic swirled around the trees as they bent and twisted into odd shapes before reverting back to their original state. She let her mind wander until suddenly she was aware of someone’s presence. She looked down to see Steve walking away from the building a messenger bag over his shoulder. “What is he doing?” Wanda thought to herself. She stifled a yawn before climbing back into bed. She was way too tired for this. Closing her eyes she let herself drift again praying that this time her sleep would be dreamless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comment any ideas you might have for the next chapter. Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> I will add other characters as we move on. I am not sure who yet, but the next chapter will be from another Avenger's POV. Let me know what you think of this or any suggestions for the next chapter. I will update the tags as the story moves along.


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